Stay on target

Scheduled for release in June, the latest set of symbols also features greying and curly hair, as well as bald heads—representative of more manes (or lack thereof).

A beta list was released late last year, highlighting possible new faces, people, body parts, clothes, animals, foods, and household items. After careful consideration, Unicode has decided people need access to safety pin, jigsaw, firecracker, and salt icons.

Among the 157 emoji are hot and cold faces; superheroes and supervillains (of both sexes); a llama, hippopotamus, peacock, and parrot; a mango; a chess pawn; and a pirate flag.

The Unicode Consortium, meanwhile, is putting an emphasis on Asian culture, with pictures of mooncake, a Chinese baked good traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. A red envelope, which typically signifies a monetary gift given during the holidays or special occasions; and the Nazar eye-shaped amulet, believed to protect against the evil eye.

There is also a distinct nod to science and math, with images of a lab coat, microbe, test tube, petri dish, DNA, and an abacus.

Earlier possibilities like a frowning pile of poo and a grinning face with the letter “OK” as eyes were, thankfully, dumped.

Emoji 11.0 (previously referred to as Emoji 6.0, but don’t let that confuse you) is expected to roll out to mobile phones in August or September. It is up to individual companies to integrate the icons into their software.

Users may be able to change emoji direction in 2018 (via Apple/Emojipedia)

It was not announced whether Unicode will fulfill a long-time request that users be able to change emoji direction—a feature that would affect only those emoticons that would “benefit from it most,” like the train, runner, or gun.

The corporation is already considering ideas for Emoji 12.0 (scheduled for a 2019 release); proposals must be submitted before the end of March.